Pages

Translate

Friday, December 2, 2016

Carnival of Space #486

Hello World!

I am excited to host the Space Carnival
this week! The space carnival is a super cool compilation of folks who blog
about space related elements and each week, they take turns hosting the
Carnival to highlight various space related articles and writings! I learned
about the Carnival when I met Brian Wang, a futurist and blogger of Next Big
Future, which covers disruptive science and technology and a great many other
fun topics.

I am also excited to share that NASA
intern Jonathan Kaldani has the honor of being the first Guest Blogger for
Stylish STEM! He highlights the importance of diversity in Space.

Diversity
in Space!

For us to go further in
space exploration we must we must have diversity. Diversity isn’t just limited
to sex, ethnicity, and religion. One of the most important aspects in diversity
is the diversity of new thought and creativity. Space rockets today are still
being made the same way that they were first made many years ago. To improve
and promote new ideas and innovation within the space realm we must have a
diverse pool of people that come various backgrounds. These backgrounds may
include educational background, interests, ethnic affiliation, beliefs, and
more. Unlike on planet Earth in space there is no divisions and conflicts
between countries or people due to various reasons and space gives us that
opportunity to develop a new beginning of a diverse society can be that can
lead the way of space exploration and innovation. Scott Page, a professor
of complex systems at the University of Michigan says “Collective knowledge
productivity depends on people knowing different things and seeing things
different ways. You don’t solve complex problems without diverse inputs.”
Diversity is beneficial to mankind and if we all thought the same, looked the
same, believed in the same things what good is that? We would not create
anything new or innovative. So, we must bring diversity in every aspect of
space exploration to make sci – fi dreams a reality! As NASA Astronaut Neil
Armstrong once said when he took his first steps on the moon “That's one small
step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” For us to continue making giant
leaps for humankind in the space exploration is to promote diversity!

I must say I am inspired to
continue the pursuit of diversity in STEM and continue this blog thanks to
interns like Jonathan. You will find that diversity creates a lot of connections
in new ways, thinking outside the box to enable innovation and accomplishment
in Space and on Earth. For example, the
connection between rockets and race cars is not as far as you might think!
Check out this cool talk from Jesse Iwuji, speaking to NASA on supporting
diversity in NASCAR with NASA technology https://nari.arc.nasa.gov/nascar

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey
Satellite (TESS) is a planned space telescope for NASA's Explorers program,
designed to search for exoplanets using the transit method. It is planned for
launch in December 2017. The primary mission objective for TESS is to survey
the brightest stars near the Earth for transiting exoplanets over a two-year
period. The TESS project will use an array of wide-field cameras to perform an
all-sky survey. With TESS, it will be possible to study the mass, size, density
and orbit of a large cohort of small planets, including a sample of rocky
worlds in the habitable zones of their host stars. TESS will provide prime
targets for further characterization by the James Webb Space Telescope, as well
as other large ground-based and space-based telescopes of the future.

SpaceX satellite constellation is a
development project underway by SpaceX to develop a low-cost, high-performance
satellite bus and requisite customer ground transceivers to be used to
implement a new space-based internet communication system. SpaceX has plans to
also sell satellites that use the same satellite bus, satellites that might be
used for scientific or exploratory purposes. Development began in 2015, initial
prototype test-flight satellites are expected to be flown in 2017, and initial
operation of the constellation could begin as early as 2020.